Human Resources Director Barbara Olivier said the county will submit its
plan
to CalPERS by the end of the month and it is expected to become effective Aug. 23.

The reduced benefit means future employees will qualify for a pension equal to 60 percent of their final pay ---- if they stay with the county for 30 years. Existing workers get 90 percent.

Riverside County government has about 17,700 workers, making it the largest employer in the county.

The board sought reforms to trim expenses in the wake of a more than $200 million-a-year plunge in tax revenue in the past five years, and in a move to stop pulling cash out of reserve.

After peaking at $785 million in fiscal 2006-07, revenue fell to $584 million this year. The total is projected to decline further, to $575 million, in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Savings from the reduced pension benefit are expected to start off small, then multiply.

Olivier said the county expects to save $2.8 million in the new fiscal year. The total includes $500,000 from public safety workers.

But Sheriff Stan Sniff urged the board to delay implementation to give his department time to study the potential adverse impacts on recruiting.

Sniff said he expects to hire hundreds of deputies over the next several years as the county scrambles to build jail cells to relieve crowding. And he said many young recruits could wind up jumping ship because of better retirement benefits elsewhere.

"It puts me at a strategic disadvantage," Sniff said. "You could quite literally turn this agency into a training ground for other agencies."

Sniff said 48 officers have left the department this year for greener pastures.

The Sheriff's Department has about 4,000 employees, most of them sworn officers.

The board recently
negotiated a contract
with the Riverside Sheriffs' Association, which represents the rank-and-file, reducing the 30-year retirement benefit from 90 percent to 60 percent.

It means, once implemented by CalPERS, new officers will qualify for pension pay at the rate of 2 percent of their final salary for each year they work, compared with 3 percent for veteran officers.

The union, however, persuaded the board not to raise the retirement eligibility age from 50 to 55, as supervisors had pledged to do in April 2011.

And if new hires stay on until 55, they will qualify for 2.7 percent per year, Olivier said.

"Our pension plan is in fact competitive, and our salaries are generous," she said.